Rumor: Green Lantern's John Stewart Will Survive

In a new wrinkle on this afternoon's story that Joshua Hale Fialkov had left Green Lantern Corps and Red Lanterns following a conflict with editorial over a story that would see Green Lantern John Stewart killed, Bleeding Cool is now reporting that consternation by fans on social media pages have led the publisher to reconsider the plans. "I'm now being told be sources that as a result of the reaction – your reaction – that this particular plot has been nixed," wrote Rich Johnston, whose DC sources this week have tipped him off to the resignations of Andy Diggle on Action Comics, Fialkov on the Green Lantern titles and the reason for Fialkov's exit. "Maybe it will now be a fake out, maybe it won't happen at all. But John Stewart, DC's most prominent black superhero, is not being killed off." Of course, this wouldn't be the first time, or even the first time in the recent past, that fans expressing their displeasure over a creative direction by DC Comics has forced the publisher's hand. While technically it was Chris Sprouse's decision to leave Adventures of Superman after thousands of fans inundated DC with negative feedback over the hiring of anti-gay activist Orson Scott Card, the end result of that decision seems to be that the publisher isn't going to be releasing that story anytime soon, suggesting that their search for a new artist hasn't been particularly aggressive. They also appear to have folded to fan pressure to rehire Gail Simone as the writer of Batgirl less than two weeks after having fired her back in December.